A five-term Powell River councillor is hoping more priorities will move forward if he’s elected mayor.
In an interview with Vista Radio, Jim Palm says next to nothing was accomplished in the last term due to a sparse strategic plan.
“This time around it was simply a page and a half of council’s wish list and that tells you about the planning and basically tells you why nothing was done when you have turnover with six either full-time or interim CAOs (chief administrative officers) in place for the past four years,” Palm said.
If elected, Palm wants to get costs under control and boost the tax revenue from the former mill site.
He says the outgoing council did not keep costs under control plus the city was “handicapped” with less tax revenue from the mill site.
“In a nutshell, that basically tells you the city is not in a great financial place at the moment and that’s why we need to get back to the basics, reduce our spending and at the same time, work with proponents that are looking at our mill site lands in order to reinvent that economic tax base that will see this city move forward in the future,” Palm said.
He says after 18 years on council he has to put his experience to work with a new council, hopefully with fresh faces.
Calling the move “a little contentious,” the veteran councillor says he’s interviewed 14 of the 21 candidates for council who are “middle to slightly right of the scale” and has publicly stated five he would like to see elected.
He hopes the choices would avoid vote splitting like the last election, which resulted in a council that got elected “that in my opinion, were not listening to our citizens a great deal other than bringing their own issues to the table, which was counterproductive to our city and getting things done.”
“I have selected a council that I think I can work with and there’s little cards with my name on it and five others that I support in this council race that I think would be a strong team to help our community move forward,” Palm said.
Palm later said he was supporting all 14 he interviewed but “I don’t want the vote spread out to any great degree so I am facing the similar music that I’ve had to face the last four years when nothing was done.”
There is one more day of advance voting tomorrow (Oct. 14) before Election Day on Saturday.
